Australian media organisations Fairfax and News Corp have lost an appeal in the High Court, in which they argued they were not liable in defamation law for comments on social media platforms by third parties.

The appeal was in relation to the Voller ruling of 2019, which originally found that the media organisations involved in the case were responsible for managing the user comments on their social media.

The High Court has upheld the initial decision, and determined that by “facilitating and encouraging” user contributions, these organisations are a participant in the implications.

The ruling means that the precedent established by the initial Voller ruling stands - individuals and organisations (whether you’re a large media company, a small business, or a sole trader) are accountable for the contributions of their users - regardless of whether there is a professional context (volunteers have been successfully sued for defamation within their social media groups).

This means proactive community management and moderation is key.

You don’t need to invest in 24 hour moderation (most people can’t afford that and it’s rarely necessary), but you do need to maintain regular moderation checks and take action on content that might be risky. Defamatory content (the subject of the Voller case) is particularly risky and is straightforward to mitigate with the right support.

Community management practice helps you build healthy and psychologically safe communities where harms are less likely to emerge - and when they do, they can be shepherded responsibly by community managers and participants.

ACM Defamation Training for Community Managers - co-created by community and legal professionals - is designed to give you everything you need to meet these challenges in a realistic way. Learn how to minimise and mitigate risk, and what to do if these issues arise. Learn how to protect yourself, your organisation and your users.

We invite you to take the training at your convenience to equip yourself or your people with the toolsets and mindsets to manage this important risk.